Face of Fire
by Keeperofthemoon0
Summary: He wouldn't always be able to stop all her tears with his kisses. But, right now, she'd let him. FA


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Title: Face of Fire

Summary: He wouldn't always be able to stop all her tears with his kisses. But, right now, she'd let him. F/A

Disclaimer: I only own the plot.

Author's Note: I AM KeeperoftheMoon. My account got deleted but I wanted to keep posting stories, so I had to make a new account. This takes place right after Fred, George and Harry are banned from Quidditch, in OotP. It's page 417 (United States version, if there is such a version).

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"I'm going to bed. Maybe this will all turn out to have been a bad dream… Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find we haven't played yet…"

She couldn't believe it. Somehow…somehow, the Gryffindor team managed to fall apart in a single game. A game that they had won, she had to remind herself as she walked up the girls' dormitory staircase, hating the fact that she had to go all the way up the stairs to get to the seventh year bedroom.

Two grand Beaters were gone, along with an even better Seeker, all because of something that Malfoy boy had said. Feeling her spine stiffen in anger, Angelina sighed, trying to remind herself that she didn't want to be angry, not right now. She just wanted to sleep. Perhaps, as she had said earlier, this was all just some bad dream.

Pushing open her dormitory door, Angelina slowly stripped out of her Quidditch uniform, which she was still wearing. She threw off the gloves on her hands, not caring where they landed on the ground. Awkwardly, she kicked off her shoes all the while managing to get over to her bed. Thankfully, she had taken off her chest protection and knee pads while waiting for the arrival of George and Harry.

Falling onto her bed, red and golden sheets enveloping her body, she sighed. She tried to close her eyes but found she couldn't. What was she going to do now? All she wanted was for this Quidditch year to go well, better then all the pervious Quidditch years under the rule of Oliver Wood. It was her time to shine.

And she managed to fall, bringing the whole team down with her. Turning onto her stomach, misery coursing through her, Angelina sighed into her sheets. Perhaps if she just jumped out of the dormitory window now…

"That Umbridge woman! I could kill her!"

Quickly, for a reason unknown, Angelina closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Katie and Alicia stumbled into the dormitory and, Angelina could almost picture it in her mind, Alicia put a finger to Katie's lips.

"Shut up! Angelina' sleeping, you goof. She's going to need her rest for tomorrow."

Angelina saw, in her mind's eye, Katie roll her eyes, taking off her Quidditch outfit as Angelina had moments before, throwing it onto the floor, not caring. What was the point, anyway? Alicia had, probably, made her way over to the mirror, frowning at her reflection.

"How, exactly, we're going to find three new Quidditch players, and train them, is beyond me," Katie said and Angelina winced.

How was she going to do that? As captain, it was her responsibility to handle such things and… and she just wished this were a dream. Moaning into her sheets, she felt more then heard Katie and Alicia freeze.

"Angie?" Alicia called and Angelina turned onto her back, opening her eyes and staring at friends. "Did we wake you?"

"No," She muttered, raising a hand to cover her face. "I was just thinking of how bloody nice it would be to kill myself."

Alicia gave a startled gasp but Katie gave a dry laugh. It was a well known fact that Alicia took things a bit too seriously and Katie was a bit too sarcastic. Angelina supposed she was a bit too bossy. Removing the hand from her face, she blinked.

"How am I going to manage this, girls?" She asked them.

"How are we going to manage this, you mean," Alicia corrected stiffly, before sending Angelina a small smile.

"I'm sure Potter and Weasley know some good Quidditch players in the lower years. And I heard that Fred and George's little sister, Ginny, was pretty good at it." Katie said, biting her lip in thought.

"Good at what?" Angelina questioned, sitting up on her bed and frowning. "I thought she played Chaser. Last summer she had been asking me for some tips."

"Eh, who cares? Living with those Weasley boys must have given her a hell of an arm-"

"Finding a Seeker if going to be the hard part," Alicia said, slowly.

Angelina groaned at the knowledge of that information. What was she going to do? Shaking her head, she looked at her friends.

"I think I'm going to hit the sack. Maybe, just maybe-"

"This isn't a dream, Angie," Alicia informed her softly, smiling sadly.

"Yeah," Katie agreed. "More of a nightmare."

Angelina couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips at that and nodded her head in agreement. Twisting uncomfortably around, she pulled at her bed sheets before lying under them. Somehow, she knew that sleep, as much as she would need it, wouldn't come to her.

Alicia, polite as always, silently turned off the light closest to Angelina, so she could have a better chance of drifting off. Angelina sighed through her nose, closing her eyes. Katie and Alicia moved around the dormitory quietly.

Was she a disappointment to the team? If she wanted, she could just ask Hermione Granger and find out if any past Quidditch coaches had ever screwed up this badly. True, it hadn't been her who attacked Malfoy but she was captain. That meant something, didn't it? Authority, promise, comfort, safety…

If Umbridge weren't lurking in every corner, Angelina would have gone down to the dungeons, found Malfoy and pounded the living day lights out of him. No doubt about it. But Umbridge was here and she could do nothing.

Of course, that didn't stop her mind from wandering. She could almost see herself doing it, too. She'd have taken the Marauder's Map from Fred and George before setting off. That pointy little git wouldn't know what hit him!

"She's sleeping, lover boy," Katie's drawl came with a laugh and caused Angelina to focus on her surroundings.

There was a moment of silence in which Angelina's ears perked, her eyes still closed.

"I'm curious though," Katie's voice came again. "How is it that you can get up the stairs when everyone knows boys are unable to?"

"If boys were unable to, Bell," A familiar, almost gleeful voice spoke. "You wouldn't be up here, now would you?"

There was the sound of something crashing into something else, Alicia groaning loudly, Katie cursing and laughter. The whole while, Angelina forced her eyes to stay shut.

"Get out of here, Weasley!"

"Shush! Let me get her, will you? Being the proper Prince Charming that I am causes me to have to do things right."

It was then that Angelina felt the pressure of fingertips against her cheek. Eyes flying open, she saw the face of one Fred Weasley, his expression unusually thoughtful and grim. He smiled slightly, though, when he saw her awake.

"Come on, love, let's go down to the common room," Fred whispered to her.

Angelina frowned but nodded, sitting up in the bed before climbing out of it. Katie was sitting, cross legged, on her bed, quill and parchment in hand. Right away, Angelina figured she was writing to Oliver Wood, something she had taken up to doing, though she didn't owl the letters to him. Alicia, she saw, was already covered in the blankets of her bed, asleep.

Licking her dry lips, Angelina took Fred's offered hand and he walked her out of the girls' dormitory and down the stairs. Turning her wondering, hazel eyes to the back of his head, she watched as the candle light from the candles on the walls caused his red hair to turn different shades, almost like the shades of a fire.

"Forge?" Angelina whispered to him and he turned his head, eyebrows raised.

She had taken up to calling him Forge, something that pleased him much.

"How did you, exactly, get up here?"

Fred chuckled but it sounded slightly hollow and Angelina suddenly remembered everything she had forgotten. He was banned from playing Quidditch, one of the most important things in his life.

"Jiggle the railing, of course."

Arriving at the base of the stairs, with no one in the common room, Fred brought Angelina over to the couch that faced the fire. She licked her lips again, watching as he took a seat on the couch. Preferring to stand, she placed her hands on her hips.

"So," Fred said, frowning. "What do you think of this?"

Taking a moment to study him, she hardly heard him. He looked elegant and so unlike the Fred she normally knew it scared her. His brown eyes were dark and the freckles the covered his face seemed to stand out. Red hair fell in front of his face but he made no move to get it out of his vision.

Fred's legs were spread open, back slouched, and one arm was resting on the armrest of the chair. Angelina sucked in a breath.

"What do I think of this?" She repeated the question in a mummer. "You know what I think of this, Fred."

Fred, almost cautiously, shook his head.

"I don't. You're captain, you wanted this year to be great and now-"

"I know what's happened, Weasley, there is no need to repeat it for me!" She snapped before she knew what she was doing.

Feeling her cheeks flush, Angelina turned away from Fred, looking outside. It was snowing and Hagrid's hut was lit up. If she looked hard enough, she could see several forms moving about, which was strange, since Hagrid hadn't been at Hogwarts yet this year.

"I-" Angelina stopped, biting her lip before continuing. "I hate this! It wasn't suppose to be like this!"

"And?" Fred pressed.

Angelina spun around, eyes heating up with anger.

"And? If Potter and your brother didn't attack Malfoy then none of this would have happened! We've all lived with the taunts of the Slytherins, really! They're just a jealous bunch of bastards who don't know-"

"Would you have let them get away with what they said if it had been your mum Malfoy was talking about?" Fred asked.

"We won the game, Fred," She told him, her eyes narrowed. "I would have been too damn happy to even realize-"

"That's a lie!" Fred said, a humorless grin coming to his face.

Angelina put her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrows as Fred sat up, his face beginning to turn pink. The two of them didn't usually fight, not over such a stupid thing as Quidditch but… but, at the moment, it was a big thing.

"If Alicia, Katie and I hadn't held you back, Umbridge would have probably banned the whole team!" Angelina screamed, for a reason unknown.

Fred stood up, looking so much more frightening than Angelina ever imagined him to be. But anger poked at her stomach and she lifted her chin in defiance.

"But that would have been better then this, wouldn't it have? You would be able to sulk in your misery because you would have an excuse to be a terrible captain! You wouldn't even have a bloody team!" Fred screamed at her.

A ripple went through the air at his words and Angelina felt her anger leak away. Her whole face crumpled and she looked down, not allowing him to see her pain. He was right, wasn't he? She was a terrible captain.

All she could hear was Fred's harsh breathing as everything caught up with her, losing half the team, and her legs crumbled beneath her as she began to cry. Angelina hated crying but now felt like a right time to do it.

"Angelina?" She heard Fred call to her, the apologetic tone in his voice loud.

She buried her head in her arms, tears coursing down her cheeks, soaking into the cloth of her shirt.

"Bloody hell, Angelina, I didn't mean it," Fred said and she heard him squat down in front of her.

His hand, hesitantly, touched the top of her head. She had never cried in front of him before and, she knew, he was at a loss of what to do. Another moment went by in which Fred took his hand off her head, using both hands to cup her face and lift it from its hiding place in her arms.

Her lip trembled when she saw Fred's face and she closed her eyes when he leaned down and kissed her wet cheeks. His lips were soft against her skin and it felt right, so right, that he was the one kissing away her tears. Angelina opened her eyes and saw Fred staring at her.

" I'm sorry," Fred muttered.

Angelina nodded her head before leaning forward, quickly, pressing her lips against his. In shock, she supposed, his hands fell from her face before grabbing onto her waist and bringing her closer to him. Reaching up, Angelina took his face into her hands, as he had done to her moments before.

She kissed him, hard and fast, opening her mouth against his right away. Fred made a sound which Angelina couldn't determine and he opened his mouth also. His tongue traced her bottom lip and she melted.

Angelina knew she shouldn't let their fight just hang in the air, being stopped by their kisses, but she didn't care. She needed comfort, she needed love…. All she needed was Fred and he was giving himself to her. A spark of passion filled the pit of her stomach as Fred moved his lips from her mouth to her face, kissing her cheek then her jaw.

Angelina gave a soft moan as Fred gathered her up in his arms, picking her up off the ground before placing her on the common room couch. Her eyes flew up when she remembered they weren't in his dormitory, or in the Quidditch locker rooms, or the broom closest… They were in the common room!

But her eyes connected with his brown eyes right away, which had a sparkle of mischievous in them, and Angelina grinned. He was straddling her, Angelina noticed, just as he leaned down and kissed her again. This time the kiss was softer, almost an apology kiss.

One of Fred's hands was holding him up, pressed against the armrest of the couch which her head was near. The other one was under her breast, caressing the skin there. Angelina arched her back and she heard Fred make another strange sound, this one half groan and half chuckle.

Moving his lips from hers, he kissed her neck, his teeth biting a spot of skin, hard enough that there would be a mark but soft enough that it didn't bother her. Angelina opened her eyes, not remembering having closed them, and stared at the top of Fred's head as he moved her shirt so he could kiss the skin of her shoulder.

"-you'll be seeing Hagrid tomorrow, then, Hermione?"

Angelina jumped at the sound of the voice and Fred's head snapped up, brown eyes a bit glossy. He lowered himself onto her body, though, so they could not be seen. His head lay on her breasts and she wondered if he did that on purpose, the git.

"Yes," Another voice, Hermione Granger's, said briskly. "We've already discussed this."

"Get your knickers out of a twist," Ron Weasley's voice said. "Harry was just making sure."

"Well, best go to bed, right? Good night Harry, Ron."

Angelina's eyes darted to meet Fred's when he lifted his head slightly. He rolled his eyes, a grin coming to his lips.

"My little brother," He mouthed to her and she smiled.

"Going to bed, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I suppose."

Fred and Angelina didn't move until Ron and Harry's footsteps were but an echo. Angelina took a deep breath, raising a hand to run through Fred's hair.

"I meant it," Fred whispered to her and Angelina raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry about what I said."

"I know," Angelina responded.

Tomorrow would be a better day, she knew. She'd find a Seeker and two Beaters, with the help of her friends. With that thought in mind, she leaned forward, kissing Fred again.

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Author's Note: This is sort of a prequel to a story I'm writing right now. It'll be called Flat 201, if you want to check it out when I post it.


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